1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical disc device and a method of controlling the optical disc device, and more particularly, to an optical disc device having a slot for receiving/removing an optical disc and a method of controlling the optical disc device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Examples of data storage mediums include magnetic discs such as floppy discs and hard discs, magnetic tapes, semiconductor memory chips such as read-only memory (ROM) and random-access memory (RAM), and optical discs.
The use of optical discs (hereinafter, also referred to as “discs”) is dramatically increasing owing to the development of high-capacity and inexpensive optical discs. Optical discs can be classified into two types depending on capacity: compact discs (CDs) and digital versatile discs (DVDs). Data recording, deleting, and reproducing are possible using discs such as 650 MB CD-R, CD-RW, 4.7 GB DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW. Furthermore, HD-DVDs and blue-ray discs having a 20-GB capacity or higher are being developed.
Optical discs can be used as data storage mediums for portable electric apparatuses such as notebook computers and camcorders. However, conventional optical disc devices using optical discs are not suitable for portable electric apparatuses since the optical disc devices are too large and thick for use in portable electric apparatuses. Although slim optical disc devices can be used for the portable electric apparatuses, it is inconvenient to insert/remove a disc into/from the slim optical disc device. In a tray type optical disc device, a disc is placed on a tray or cassette and then is loaded in the optical disc device. However, in a slot-in type optical disc device, a disc can be automatically inserted/removed into/from the slot-in type optical disc device through a slot formed in a side of the slot-in optical disc device. The slot-in type optical disc device may be more suitable for a portable electric apparatus than the tray type optical disc device.
Meanwhile, the slot-in type optical disc device can be used with only an optical disc having a diameter of about 12 cm (hereinafter, referred to as a “large-diameter disc”). However, as the development of high-density discs continues, the use of optical discs having a diameter of about 8 cm (hereinafter, referred to as a “small-diameter disc”) is increasing, and thus there is an increasing need for a slot-in type optical disc device that can be used with a small-diameter disc. Furthermore, the standard size of the large-diameter disc or the small-diameter disc can be changed. Moreover, there can be an upper limit to the thickness of an optical disc device used for a portable electric apparatus such as a notebook computer. Although the upper limit is currently about 12.7 mm, it can be changed. Therefore, there is a need for a slot-in type optical disc device that can be used with both a large-diameter disc and a small-diameter disc and has a thickness smaller than the upper limit. Furthermore, although the structure of the slot-in type optical disc device for loading and coupling a disc should be compact, the slot-in type optical disc device should not be excessively small and light so as to prevent the slot-in type optical disc device from being easily damaged by vibrations and impacts and to prevent data reading/writing errors.
Therefore, what is needed is a slot-in type optical disc device that has a thickness smaller than the upper thickness limit, requires fewer components, can be used with optical discs having various diameters (e.g., a large-diameter disc and a small-diameter disc), and can be stably protected from vibrations and impacts.